The next morning – a Sunday – Harry didn't get up early.

He could have done, but there wasn't much point because the Task wasn't until about one in the afternoon anyway. Still, he was involved (instead of just being a spectator) and so at about ten to twelve he had a quick bite to eat and flew down to the enclosure Dumbledore had talked about.

It turned out to be a brightly coloured tent in red, blue and yellow – big enough that Harry thought the word was 'pavillion' - and pitched, just as he'd said, right by the Quidditch Pitch. Interestingly it seemed that the actual task would be happening in the Quidditch Pitch, which had been landscaped to have a quite spectacular array of rocky spikes and protrusions across most of the arena.

Harry tried not to think too had about what Ron would say, because it would probably not be very polite. Though Dean would probably say that it'd make the game a bit more tactical.

"Ah, Harry!" Mr. Bagman said, as Harry alighted just outside the enclosure. "I understand you're our expert?"

"Well, I can speak Dragonish," Harry replied.

"More than most can, I think," Mr. Bagman chuckled. "Dumbledore already told you what's going to happen?"

Harry just nodded, and then Nora poked her head through the door.

"Hi!" she said brightly. "I heard you!"

One of her claws gently prodded the fabric of the tent. "This house isn't very strong. I have to be very careful."

"Being careful is a good thing," Harry told her, then looked up at Bagman. "I'll start explaining it to her now, shall I?"

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Mr. Bagman said. "Only… can you please use the back room? The front room just through here is where the Champions will be reporting in a few minutes."

Harry nodded, telling Nora that, and the dragoness backed up carefully so she could turn around.

Inside the pavillion, it was – much to Harry's surprise – not larger on the inside. There were several chairs around the edge of the front room, and a large exit leading through to the back room, and Nora crouched her head a little before slowly and carefully making her way through the exit.

Her ridges almost touched the top of the doorway, and she had a look of intense concentration as she squeezed into the back room. Then Harry followed, and once he was through Mr. Bagman closed the opening with a wave of his wand.

The back room was a bit larger than the front room, with a long tunnel that Harry was fairly sure would have to lead out onto the Quidditch Pitch, and instead of a set of lots of chairs there were just the two. One of them was empty, but a large and familiar heron was sitting motionless on the arm of the other.

"Percy?" Harry asked, smiling.

There was a blur of motion, and Percy was duly standing there.

"Harry," he replied, nodding pleasantly.

"Nora?" Nora asked. "Are we saying names?"

Harry did his best not to laugh.

"I know you've talked about this with the Headmaster already, but I've got a few things to make sure you cover," Percy explained, holding up a page of notes for a moment.

"What about if I tell you what I'm telling her?" Harry asked. "And you can see if I leave something out?"

Percy indicated this would be fine, and Harry paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before starting to explain – first to Nora, and then repeating everything to Percy.

"This is part of a competition," he explained. "When we start, you're going to be out there-" he pointed out the door of the tent, the one that led out onto the pitch- "and there's going to be some pretend dragon eggs."

"Pretend eggs?" Nora repeated, frowning. "Why would you have pretend eggs? Real eggs have dragons in them. That's better."

Harry translated that for Percy, who chuckled slightly.

"The idea is that you have to pretend to protect them, but it doesn't matter if they get damaged," he resumed. "There are going to be two wizards and a witch trying to steal one of the eggs, and you're going to be trying to stop them – but it's all a game."

Nora's eyes almost crossed as she thought about that.

"So I try and scare them off?" she asked. "Or blow flame at them, but stop if they run away?"

"That's right," Harry agreed. "And Hagrid will be there, and I'll be there. If either of us tell you to stop, you have to stop straight away – and if it looks like you're going to get hurt, we'll tell the champions to stop straight away."

Another long frown of contemplation, then Nora nodded in understanding. "I get it!"

She waited patiently while Harry translated again, and Percy looked down his checklist. A quill ticked a few boxes, then Percy looked up again.

"I'm sure she knows not to damage any of the eggs herself," Percy mused, and Harry decided to mention that anyway once Percy was done. "And not to just carry the eggs off, they have to stay on the ground."

Nora looked a bit disappointed when Harry mentioned that second one.

"Oh!" she said suddenly. "Do I win something if I do well? If it's a game?"

When that was translated, Percy looked slightly embarrassed.

"I don't think we thought of that," he admitted.

"Dumbledore, Hagrid and I will try and think of something," Harry suggested, then promised that to Nora.

She nodded in understanding, and Percy went back to his notes.

They were still getting the last details of the arena ready for a while, long enough for Percy and Harry to be finished, and the Weasley boy (or, well, man, Harry supposed) gave them both a pleased nod.

"I'll take my place on the judges' stands," he said. "Mr. Bagman or Mr. Hagrid will let you know when Nora should take her place on the field."

Once he'd left, Harry sat down to wait, and Nora copied him.

He was glad he wasn't going to be one of the Champions. Just being involved was stressful enough.

"Eggs from a dragon?" Cedric asked, loudly enough for Harry to hear it through the fabric of the inner wall of the tent. (Then someone else said something about a manticore, but Harry couldn't quite tell who had spoken.)

They got the signal that it was okay to go out onto the pitch a minute or so later – unsurprisingly it was Hagrid who'd been sent to get Nora – and after she'd carefully picked her way down the tunnel Harry did the same before looking around to spot his friends.

Hermione and the others were in one of the closer stands, which made things easy, and Harry just took off to fly over and land next to the empty seat they'd kept.

"Was wondering if you'd be late, mate," Ron said, giving him a nod. "How long have you known about this?"

"Since, um, first week back," Harry answered. "Sorry I couldn't tell you."

"Nah, it's okay," Ron shrugged.

Harry elected not to actually sit in his seat, instead sort of half-leaning against the front wall with his wings tensed in case he needed to take off in a hurry, and got his first look at the arena now it had been set up.

The rock spires he'd seen before hadn't changed – it had probably taken hours to put them in place – but there was a circle of red granite slabs right in the middle of the arena, with about twenty multicoloured eggs inside.

It was sort of obvious that none of them were real dragon eggs, simply because – having seen real dragon eggs – Harry knew that they didn't come in quite such a riot of colours. There were silver ones, red and blue ones, ones with a pattern sort of like a chess board, pink ones with flowers on them and dark purple ones studded with stars. There were also three golden eggs, each one with a ribbon around it – yellow and black, blue, and red – and Harry had the distinct feeling that those were the ones for the Champions to try and collect.

Nora picked up one of the eggs, held it up to her ear, and shook it gently. Seeming satisfied, she put it back, then visibly noticed everyone watching her and flared her wings before shooting out a jet of flame.

"She reminds me of my sisters playing dress up," Dean said.

"Oi, Harry," Fred called. "You're helping out with the Task, right?"

"That's right," Harry agreed, then something clothy landed on top of his head.

Shaking the fabric off and opening it out, Harry realized it was sort of like one of those high visibility vests that you sometimes saw on building sites or Muggle TV or something like that – only it was the right size and shape to fit him.

"We came up with the idea last week," George explained. "It should last until tomorrow before the transfiguration starts wearing off."

Harry shrugged it on, fiddling around with it a bit to make sure he got his wings through the right holes, and by the time he was done Mr. Bagman had started doing the announcing.

Everyone began cheering, and a moment later Cedric came out onto the pitch.

"The Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory!" Bagman declared, and the cheering got louder for a moment. Harry shifted a bit, ready to see what Cedric was going to do, and the older boy paused before slowly approaching – his whole body tense.

When he passed a particular rocky obstacle that seemed to have fallen over, making it wider than it was tall, Nora bounded over a little way towards him and shot out a jet of fire. It looked to Harry like it was aimed a little bit high, so Cedric would only get caught in the edge, but he cast an Aguamenti spell and dove for cover behind a convenient rock.

"Well, he won't get far if he doesn't have a plan to deal with fire!" Bagman said, and Harry saw Nora look briefly up at where Mr. Bagman was announcing before returning her attention to Cedric's hiding place.

She blew a little bit more fire at it, sort of trying to curve it so it went over the rock, but that didn't actually reach where Cedric was hiding. Then Cedric jumped back out into the open, on the side he hadn't been before, and flicked his wand around to cast a spell.

A kind of silver shield appeared in front of him, one which looked like it had some kind of symbol on it – a badger? - and then Nora shot fire at that as well. Cedric ducked behind the rock again, leaving the shield, and Harry watched as the fire flowed around the shield to scorch the grass behind it.

"Oh, I see!" Mr. Bagman gasped, as the shield dissolved again. "A good spell, but it's not worked – he can't get away from the fire that way!"

Then Cedric broke cover, pelting across the pitch towards another one of the rocky spires to shield him, and Nora flared her wings and roared at him. That made the crowd go 'ooh', but Cedric kept going, and got safely to cover before she actually breathed fire at him.

"He's taking risks, this one," Mr. Bagman said. "I don't think that is going to keep working!"

"Avis!" Cedric called, his voice faint with distance, and a small flock of birds burst out from the tip of his wand. Nora flamed at them, startled, and that distracted her for long enough to let Cedric get to another piece of rock – this one closer still to the faux nest.

This time, the dragoness didn't just wait for Cedric to do something, and started prowling around the rocky obstruction he was using. Cedric began moving around it as well, making sure he was on the other side of it from Nora, and the crowd kept going between back-and-forth muttering and the occasional gasp.

Nora kept stalking closer to Cedric, crouching down a little as she kept moving around the rock, until she was nearly where the rock would be between her and the nest.

Then she quickly moved her head the other way, startling Cedric just as he was about to make a break for the nest, and he yelped in surprise before shooting a jet of water at her.

Nora's reaction to that was to breathe flame back at him, coming quite close this time (it looked like the sleeve of Cedric's robes had caught fire) and Harry nearly called out for Nora to stop before seeing that she was letting Cedric get away again now he was moving away from the nest instead of towards it.

"Is he all right?" Bagman asked, saying what most of the audience were thinking. Then he got his answer, as Cedric discarded his burning robes to leave him in just jeans and a shirt.

It sounded like quite a lot of the girls in the audience were pleased by that.

Harry sort of had to wonder what Fleur and Krum were thinking about all this.

They wouldn't be able to see anything, but they could certainly hear Mr. Bagman's commentary – to be honest it was probably audible in Hogsmeade – and when the commentary was things like 'Clever move, pity it didn't work!' and 'He's playing with literal fire, this one!' then they might be feeling a bit nervous.

Cedric had tried to make a run for the eggs twice now, the second time by Transfiguring a rock into a dog and sending it running off in another direction. Nora had followed it, interested, but then remembered what she was meant to be doing and turned back to see where Cedric was.

That had resulted in a scorch mark on the grass that left Ron groaning, and Cedric conjuring a large metal shield to protect himself before running back to somewhere that gave him a bit of cover. Now he was looking around, occasionally peeking out of cover to see what was going on and then doing something with his wand.

"Am I doing okay?" Nora asked, stopping halfway through pacing around the edge of the nest to look at Hagrid.

"All good," Hagrid answered, presumably in Dragonish.

Looking a little closer, Harry noticed a large wooden box next to Hagrid that was sort of like a cross between a crib and a crate. It came up to about Hagrid's chest, and was probably where Gary, Sally and Olly were for now – fortunately none of them could actually breathe fire yet, so they could be kept in there safely.

That made Harry wonder for a moment whether non-Ridgebacks would be easier or harder to teach. They got their fire later than Ridgebacks did, but that might mean that it would be more difficult to really get across the idea that they weren't supposed to set something on fire while they were young enough to convincingly inform.

Then again, Nora was sweet and biddable (which was a word Harry was fairly sure of the meaning of from seeing it in books) so maybe it wouldn't matter.

"Oh, this is interesting!" Mr. Bagman said, and Harry looked back at the arena again.

Cedric had conjured half-a-dozen dogs, this time, and sent them all running in different directions – a husky, a labrador, a pit bull, all of them barking over and over as they pelted across the grass.

One of them went very close to Nora, and she stuck out a wing in its way to stop it. The dog fell over with a thump, and she picked it up carefully to look at it.

As far as Harry could see, it was just barking over and over again – not squirming to get away – and he wondered if that was just because Cedric had done a bit of a rush job on the Transfiguration. You had to give the Transfigured animal a sense of how it was meant to behave, or at least that was what he remembered.

Then there was a sudden gasp from the crowd, and Nora looked around in confusion.

One of the dogs had run right into the nest – and promptly come back out again, rolling a golden egg with a yellow-and-black band around the middle. The egg was making a sort of wobbly path across the grass, and Nora put down the dog in her paws before taking off with a clap of wings.

When she was halfway to the rolling egg – which was halfway to the rocks – Cedric stepped out of cover, flourished his wand, and the dog turned back into a rock for a moment before Cedric transfigured the rock into a round cage that enclosed the egg completely.

"Accio!" he shouted, and the cage flew across the grass. Nora missed it, pulling up just before crashing into the ground, and Cedric caught it like a football goalkeeper making a catch.

The impact knocked him over, but he held it high to show off the golden egg within.

There was a mighty roar from the crowd, and Mr. Bagman cheered along with them. "And a wonderful ploy from the Hogwarts Champion! Well done!"

"Stop now," Hagrid called to Nora, over the crowd. "Well done!"

"He got it?" Nora asked loudly, looking at Hagrid and then Cedric in confusion before looking up towards Harry in case he could shed some light on the matter. Harry nodded firmly, and Nora seemed to relax a little.

Deciding to help explain, Harry spread his wings and took off.

"Oh!" Nora said, tilting her head a little. "So it's okay if someone gets one."

"That's right," Harry agreed. "You have to try and make sure they don't get any eggs, but it's okay if they do."

Cedric had vanished back into the tent to be treated for a few minor injuries, but he came out again with someone who looked familiar – Harry thought it was the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang – as the scores were awarded, interestingly by being drawn in the air.

On the whole he got about eight points per person, though Headmaster Karkaroff only gave him five. Harry wondered if that meant that Karkaroff was from East Germany, because he'd heard his Uncle Vernon complaining about East German judges during the Olympics once, but he wasn't entirely clear on the details.

Then Bagman told everyone that the second competitor would be Fleur Delacoeur, and Harry took off again so he wouldn't get in the way.

Fleur seemed to be trying something different to Cedric. While he'd been very active, running around half the time, Fleur's approach was instead to stop a long way away – further than any of the scorch marks from Nora's fire – and raise her wand, before doing very little for at least a minute.

Harry wasn't at all sure what she was doing, and Nora didn't seem to have much idea either. After the dogs, though, she seemed a bit reluctant to leave the immediate area of the nest she was protecting, and Harry couldn't really blame her.

"Not a lot going on, is there?" Neville asked.

"Maybe that's the point?" Hermione said. "I imagine she has a plan already, she's had a lot longer to think about it than Cedric did."

Fleur took a step forwards, and Nora tilted her head.

"I'm not sure that was wise!" Bagman shouted gleefully.

Then Fleur pointed her wand at her throat, and a moment later her magically-amplified voice said something sharply in French.

Hermione squeaked in surprise, and everyone turned to look at her.

"Oh, um..." she began. "She said that, that he should shut up and let her get on with it. And… and there was a lot of swearing."

Nora looked quite confused by what had just happened, and watched Fleur carefully as the French witch dispelled her Sonorus spell before starting to slowly approach again.

Admittedly Harry wasn't entirely sure what was going on either. Fleur had her wand out, and occasionally it moved in little twirling patterns, but if she was saying something or casting any verbal spells then Harry couldn't hear it from where he was.

It was certainly nothing like what Cedric had done.

"Blimey, I kind of get why Bagman was getting testy," Dean muttered. "Is she actually going to do anything?"

Even Nora seemed bored, and she let out a jaw-cracking yawn where after a moment she covered her muzzle with a paw for politeness' sake. Then she shook her head a few times. "Sorry!"

Another yawn came a moment later, and Harry wondered for a moment if maybe Nora hadn't got enough sleep last night.

Then she took off, spreading her wings and slamming them down in a sudden burst of energy, and hovered for a long moment. That done, she moved forwards a little, banked around and flew a half circuit of the stadium before returning to where she'd been before.

Fleur had moved closer while Nora had been airborne, but not quite up to the same distance as the scorch marks Cedric had incurred. She put her hands on her hips for a moment, then started moving her wand in little twirling patterns again.

Nora watched her carefully, then started yawning again. In reaction, she took off again – her wings driving her into a hover – and stayed there.

Fleur said something sharp and French, then pointed her wand at her dress and sprayed it with water. Some of the boys in the crowd started whistling, which didn't sound very pleasant to Harry but then again a lot of the girls had liked it when Cedric had to take his robes off. So maybe it was just the same thing from a different angle.

While Harry was contemplating that, Fleur pocketed her wand and broke into a run. Nora shot fire to try and warn her off, but Fleur just skipped to the side slightly instead of retreating. The flame flashed down her side, and Harry leaned forwards to see if she was okay – raising his wings in case he had to jump in and intervene.

The Beauxbatons champion seemed completely unfazed by nearly being set on fire, and after a puzzled glance Nora started breathing fire where Fleur was going to be instead.

"What's going on?" Bagman asked. "This is a very risky move by the French champion!"

Harry was sure that Fleur was going to have to stop, or at least move around the jet of flame, right up until she didn't. She went straight into Nora's jet of fire, vanishing into the breath, and there was a drawn-out gasp that ran right around the stadium.

Nora gasped as well, her flames stopping, but then Fleur came back out the other side.

Her dress was a bit tattered around the edges, and visibly steaming, but at the same time Harry could clearly see just why she'd run directly into dragonflame. Her head had changed into the head of a bird, and a pair of scaly wings had burst from her shoulders, and she ran the rest of the way to the nest before snatching up the blue-banded golden egg.

"And miss Delacour has the egg!" Bagman announced. "Now all she has to do is get away with it!"

Nora shook her head slightly, visibly trying to recover from her surprise, then jumped. Her wings boosted her jump and turned it into a sort of half-glide, and she landed with a thump so that Fleur was between her and the nest.

Fleur jinked right, and Nora spread a wing to block her before sort of hopping sideways so Fleur couldn't just keep going right and get around her. Then Fleur's free hand came up and she threw a ball of fire, one which flashed towards Nora's head and made her flinch, and used that moment of distraction to run to the left and dodge past Nora.

The Ridgeback's tail flicked around, knocking Fleur over and sending her rolling, and for a moment Nora looked anxious instead of trying to stop her foe. That lasted until Fleur rolled back upright and threw another fireball at her, then Nora's whole expression brightened and she fired a little burst of flame back at Fleur.

Everyone in the crowds was cheering or shouting now as the sort-of-boring start turned into a chaotic-and-exciting finish, and as Nora tried to block Fleur from getting away while Fleur alternately threw fireballs and jumped or dodged to get a little further each time.

Fleur threw herself down, rolling underneath Nora's wing, then got back upright again with a spring aided by the push of her Veela's wings. She lobbed a fireball back, then juggled the egg from one hand to the other to throw a second fireball that caught her draconic opponent by surprise.

That one exploded right in front of Nora's nose, making her cough, and Fleur sprinted the last few yards to reach the ring of stones. The whistle blew at that point, and Harry took off to make sure Nora knew to stop – though she seemed to have already got the idea.

"My word!" Bagman was saying, over and over. "My word – that was exciting!"

"I didn't know there were any people who weren't dragons who could do that," Nora said, sounding distinctly puzzled. "Did you know she could do that?"

"I didn't," Harry told her. "And I don't think the last one can, so be careful."

"Okay," Nora agreed, nodding her head to show she understood, then curled her tail around and fiddled with it. "Harry? That girl threw fire at me. If the last one throws magic at me, is it okay if I throw fire at them?"

"If you're careful with it," Harry said. "Remember, you're a dragon, so most magic can't hurt you much, but humans can be hurt a lot by fire."

"Okay!" Nora nodded again.

She looked up at the trails of light the judges were sending into the air. Fleur had refused to go to get medical attention because she hadn't actually been hurt, which was entirely logical as far as Harry was concerned, but it looked like she was taking a few points down for running directly into dragon fire (and possibly for swearing).

That did make Harry wonder if anyone who wasn't going last could possibly get full points, though. Surely if the person who came first made no mistakes and got the egg in five minutes, and then the person who came second made no mistakes and got the egg in three minutes, wouldn't that mean that the second person did better?

"What are those?" Nora asked. "There was one pattern three times."

"Oh, that's a nine," Harry told her. "You know how numbers go one, two, three..?"

"Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Nora nodded, making scratches in the ground one at a time. "But what's that squiggly thing?"

"That's a way of writing nine without making nine scratches," Harry told her.

He was going to say more, realizing that Empress couldn't really teach her how to read numbers, but Mr. Bagman started saying that the Durmstrang Champion was about to show up so he decided he'd better get out of the way.

When Krum entered the arena, Harry wondered for a moment if he'd have a bit of an advantage dealing with crowds.

Then he frowned, because that prompted the thought that actually Cedric had been playing Quidditch for years so he'd seen big crowds as well. And because Fleur was a veela – or part-veela or whatever, but she had the veela powers – then it made sense that people would look at her a lot too.

Wondering about how it worked for veela – whether any woman whose mother was a veela was a veela, or whether there were men who were veela as well (even though there hadn't been any of them at the World Cup) – distracted Harry for a moment, then he shook his head and started properly paying attention again.

Krum started by taking out his wand, and aimed carefully for a long moment. "Stupefy!"

The red Stunner bolt flashed out towards Nora, and she moved her head a little to the side. Harry couldn't quite tell if Krum would have hit what he was aiming for without that, but the red attack struck her on the side of the head and burst into a cloud of sparks.

"Oh!" Nora said, realizing something, and turned to Hagrid. "He's throwing magic at me! Does that mean I can breathe fire at him?"

"Yes, but not hurt him too much," Hagrid replied.

Krum watched that with a slight frown, then sent another spell flicking towards Nora. This one was blue – Harry didn't recognize it – and instead of hitting Nora's scales it suddenly went snap and turned into an explosion.

Wings flaring, Nora took off – but instead of flying straight for Krum, she hovered for a long moment and looked back down at the nest she was meant to be protecting.

Everyone watched to see what she would do next – then she visibly took a breath, and shot out a long blast of intense fire at the pitch surface about ten feet from the faux-eggs.

For a moment the grass by the jet itself just crisped up. Then it caught fire, and while most of the grass was too lush and green for the fire to spread it still ended up black and smouldering in the area Nora had attacked.

"Oh, come on..." George sighed. "If the rocks weren't bad enough..."

Still mostly hovering, Nora flew in a circle and kept breathing fire except when she had to inhale. It took almost a minute, during which time Krum shot another couple of spells at her (both of which hit her scales) but when she was done there was a kind of smouldering black-and-red line around the whole of the nest.

Satisfied with that, Nora began flapping more strongly. She gained height, then started cupping her wings to push air behind her as well as below and transitioned smoothly into normal flight.

"Bombarda!" Krum called, pointing his wand in her direction again. This time there was a bigger explosion, one which seemed to knock Nora aside slightly, and she banked a little to recover before exhaling a wide burst of flame.

Now that he'd seen what it was like when Nora was actually breathing her hottest flame – which had a visible intensity that was hard to miss – Harry could tell that what she was doing to Krum now wasn't her hottest flame. A bit like what she'd been doing to block Fleur earlier, it was wider and less focused and even somewhat smokier, and when Krum dove out of the way it seemed to come quite close to him but none of his clothes ended up set on fire.

There was a stifled groan of disappointment from much of the stands, including from two seats over from Harry.

"Hermione!" Ron gasped.

"I'm just..." Hermione began, as Dean started laughing. "That is – I just want for him to be treated the same as the others!"

Ron grumbled something, then told Dean that it would be really helpful if he would kindly shut up.

Krum hadn't stopped casting spells, keeping a wary eye on Nora and moving from rock to rock as he did. It looked like he had a sort of pattern, where he'd throw a spell at Nora and then either run for the next safe place or duck back into cover depending on how she seemed to be reacting.

He was mostly sticking either to some kind of blasting curse(like the Bombarda from before, or a new one for Harry called Confringo) or a more disabling sort of spell, like a stunner or a body-bind. For the latter ones he seemed to be aiming for Nora's head, perhaps for her eyes, but they were quite a small target and she was moving enough that he hadn't got her with one yet.

"Krum is pretty good," Neville said. "You know how a lot of wizards stand there and throw spells? He's not doing that."

"Is that from that sword book that Harry got you?" Ron asked.

"A bit," Neville shrugged. "There's other stuff too. But footwork's really important."

"Conjunctivus!" Krum shouted, and this time he'd aimed right – or, at least, Nora was in the wrong place when the spell arrived. It flashed into her eyes and she yelped, pawing at one for a moment before shaking her head and half-growling half-keening.

"And it looks like Mr. Krum has hit the dragon! My word, I don't think she can see!" Mr. Bagman shouted. "He's got a clear run to the egg now!"

Harry tensed up again, in case he'd have to intervene – this time to make sure Nora wasn't hurt instead of her opponent – but Nora looked like she was just about keeping on top of things.

She dropped her tail to the ground, then landed as soon as her tail was touching – maybe so she could tell how high up she was – and then sniffed the air for a moment before beginning to lope in the direction of the nest.

Krum had broken into a run himself as soon as the spell he'd cast landed, and when he was about to reach the fire-moat Nora had set up he raised his wand again. "Extinguere! Ventus!"

Part of the smouldering grass went quiescent, and then a wave of wind blew the smoke away. Krum ran through to the nest, picked up the egg (Harry was guessing on that bit, because the rest of the smoke still made it a bit hard to see) and sprinted back the way he'd come.

"And our third champion has his egg!" Mr. Bagman announced.

Harry took off as soon as he'd said that, flying over to where Nora had slowed down as she reached the burned ring of grass. She was moving more carefully, making sure she wouldn't squash any of the eggs, and Harry pulled up to hover just outside the smoke cloud.

"Nora!" he called, getting her attention. "You can stop – great work!"

"Thanks!" Nora replied, then rubbed at the side of her muzzle again. "My eyes hurt a lot. Can someone help with that?"

"Nora!" Hagrid said, skidding to a halt a few feet from her and waving his arms so he wouldn't fall over. "You did good! Hug?"

"Hug?" Nora repeated, brightening visibly. "Yes!"

Even though by now Nora was quite a bit bigger than Hagrid, especially counting all of her neck and tail and wings and stuff, Hagrid could still give her quite an impressive embrace.

Because of all the times Krum had been visibly nearly set on fire, he had to spend a few minutes in the Champions' Tent first, and Harry decided to go back up to join his friends so he could watch the results with them.

"Was Krum all right?" was Fred's first question. "I know he's one of the other champions, but he's damn good at Quidditch. Be a shame if he got hurt."

"He looked a lot better than at the World Cup," Harry answered, but he was already pondering. "Why is he Krum?"

"That's… his name?" Ginny asked carefully.

"No, I mean, Cedric is Cedric, and Fleur is Fleur, but Krum is Krum," Harry tried to explain, then realized faintly that it sounded like he was going mad. "And Krum is a surname, but Fleur and Cedric are first names."

"Oh, right," Neville realized. "That's what you meant."

He chuckled. "It's sort of like Draco. Or Malfoy. Or both."

"Maybe it's because it's the shorter bit of the names?" Hermione asked. "Viktor Krum is a two syllable first name and a one syllable surname, but Fleur Delacour is a one syllable first name and a three syllable surname. And Cedric's surname is Diggory, which is longer."

"Does that mean we have a reason to call Malfoy Malfoy?" Ron began, then shook his head. "No, that doesn't work, because Draco and Malfoy are as long as one another."

"It does mean there's a reason to call Crabbe and Goyle Crabbe and Goyle," Dean consoled him. "Because 'Crabbe and Goyle' is only as long as Gregory, and you're getting two for the price of one."

Harry smiled, then noticed a tracery of light as the judges began sending up their numbers.

Krum got an eight, three nines and a ten, which was a very good result, and which (if Harry was working this out right) meant he was in first place – though the other two champions were only a few points behind him, so it wasn't really first by much.

"Huh," Ginny said. "I think Percy gave exactly the same score to all three Champions?"

"They did all get the egg," Fred replied. "And he was giving his score fourth, maybe he thought the difference was already included?"

"That or he's being really weirdly fair," Lee Jordan said. "You know, like the kind of fair where he inspected us every time we got back from Hogsmeade."

"That he knew about..." George mused.

Then there was a kind of polite cough that echoed around the arena.

"I would like to thank everyone for turning up," Dumbledore said, pleasantly and loudly. "If anybody has not turned up, do please consider yourself not to be thanked, though I wish you good luck in whatever else it was you were doing with your time."

"Completely mad," George said faintly.

"I would also like to extend my thanks in particular to everyone who has helped to make the First Task of the resumed Triwizard Tournament into such a fine experience, and of course to our three Champions!" Dumbledore continued, prompting a wave of applause.

Harry realized that that meant he was probably included, but the Champions were as well so he applauded for them. It felt less odd than applauding himself.

"I do hope that whatever the next Task may be develops into as pleasant an experience," Dumbledore went on, once the sound of the applause had subsided. "I believe our Champions will be being told right now, or very soon, what they will need to know about it, and I will be quite interested to see their solution to whatever problem it is they will be presented with. I look forward to seeing you all on the Twenty-Fourth of February – or sooner if you intend to attend the Yule Ball or have a meal at Hogwarts between then and now."

"What is the Yule Ball?" Dean asked.

"It's mentioned in Hogwarts-" Hermione began, but Dumbledore had something else to say.

"And, last of all, may I ask for a round of applause for our very own school mascot and dragon who made this task quite unforgettable, Nora!"

One of the wizards who came onto the field to help while Krum was being checked over in the medical tent seemed to have fixed Nora's eyes, and she looked around her as scattered applause grew into a wave (and one which Harry fully participated in). Her head dipped down to ask Hagrid a question, then her wings ruffled a little, and she seemed to not know quite how to react.

Harry knew how she felt.

AN:

And that's a first task.

It was interesting to try and expand out the descriptions we're given in the book. Cedric took fifteen minutes in canon, and Fleur ten; Krum was faster, but Canon Harry was the quickest.

Of course, the presence of Nora changes things slightly.